Nvidia is in talks to guarantee billions of dollars in debt financing for Nscale's planned Anthropic data centre in West Virginia, according to The Information, as relayed by TechCrunch on 30 October 2026. The arrangement is described as proposed, not signed.
What is reported
The Information reported that the guarantee would help Nscale secure financing for the electricity and construction costs of its West Virginia campus. Under the residual value guarantee The Information described, Nvidia would step in if Nscale defaulted on construction payments. It would reportedly take over the facility temporarily and help find a buyer and a new tenant.
TechCrunch adds that Nvidia's earlier support for cloud providers has mostly covered leases and chip purchases, not construction. An unnamed investor told The Information that Anthropic's involvement likely explains Nvidia's interest in keeping the project on track.
The project and the numbers
The site is Nscale's Monarch campus in Mason County, West Virginia. In a press release dated 16 March 2026, Nscale said it had signed a letter of intent with Microsoft for up to 1.35 gigawatts of AI compute at the campus, using Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems. TNW later reported that Microsoft dropped its plan to be the main tenant at Monarch, saying slow progress on the grid connection had pushed its expected start date into the 2030s. Separately, TechCrunch reports that this month Microsoft pulled out of a planned Nscale site in England after grid power for it was pushed into the 2030s.
Anthropic's contract covers the first 460-megawatt building, which TechCrunch says is expected to use Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips. The outlets differ on the money:
- TechCrunch says Anthropic has signed a $44.6 billion contract for the first building, according to Nscale's IPO filing. It adds that the companies are discussing a second deal worth roughly $45 billion for another building.
- TNW, citing Bloomberg, reports that Nscale and Anthropic are negotiating a second deal of about $45 billion for a second 460MW building. TNW says the first deal, agreed in August, has Anthropic spending $45bn over six years, and that the filing values Nscale's agreements with Anthropic at up to $44.6bn. TNW wrote on 20 October that it had not independently verified the Bloomberg report, and that both companies declined to comment to Bloomberg.
The outlets also differ on the valuation Nscale is seeking. TechCrunch says a valuation of up to $35 billion; TNW says about $30bn.
Why Nvidia would be asked
Nvidia is already a large financial backer of the sector. TechCrunch, citing The Information, says it has extended roughly $170 billion in investments and credit support to neoclouds and large customers, including $1 billion in convertible financing committed to Nscale in September. TNW reports that Nscale closed a $3.36bn pre-IPO round in September, led by the hedge fund Third Point.
CNBC reported on 24 October that, as of Nvidia's last quarterly filing, the company had $36 billion in off-balance-sheet AI cloud agreements, or backstops, for neoclouds. CNBC said that for the vast majority of these deals Nvidia won't have to pay up unless participants in the project default. CNBC also reported that shares of the neoclouds CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN were down at least 30% that month. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told CNBC that demand for neoclouds is "off the charts" and that "there's a scarcity of capital." CNBC said Nvidia is an investor in Nscale, which it said filed to go public in the US in September and had not provided updates on its plans in weeks.
Reported, not settled
The guarantee is still a proposal. The Information reported that Nvidia is in talks. TechCrunch also says Anthropic has signed a $44.6 billion contract for the project's first building alone, according to Nscale's IPO filing.
Sources
CNBC (2026) 'Nvidia's role as AI financier faces first big test as neoclouds take market hit', CNBC, 24 October 2026, available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/24/nvidias-role-as-ai-financier-faces-first-big-test-as-neoclouds-take-market-hit.html (Accessed: 31 October 2026).
Nscale (2026) 'Nscale and Microsoft Announce Collaboration with NVIDIA and Caterpillar to Deliver 1.35GW of NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs at Flagship AI Factory Campus in West Virginia', Nscale, 16 March 2026, available at: https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/nscale-west-virginia-ai-factory (Accessed: 31 October 2026).
The Next Web (2026) 'Nscale and Anthropic reportedly in talks over second $45bn deal', TNW, 20 October 2026, available at: https://thenextweb.com/news/nscale-and-anthropic-reportedly-in-talks-over-second-45bn-deal (Accessed: 31 October 2026).
Mehta, A. (2026) 'Nvidia weighs playing the cosigner for Nscale's AI data center in West Virginia', TechCrunch, 30 October 2026, available at: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/nvidia-weighs-playing-the-cosigner-for-nscales-ai-data-center-in-west-virginia/ (Accessed: 31 October 2026).
Picture credits
- Top picture: Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia. Image: Jensen Huang / Anders Eidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
- Mason County, West Virginia, where Nscale's Monarch campus is located. Image: Carol M. Highsmith, via Wikimedia Commons
- Map: drawn from Natural Earth (public domain) and Wikidata.
